The subject application relates to a system and method in which output from a television to a recording device can be maintained when certain operating modes of the television including, but not limited to, picture-in-picture (PIP) and picture-outside-picture (POP) are used.
Many televisions provide so-called picture-in-picture (PIP) and/or picture-outside-picture (POP) modes. PIP refers to a feature that allows a user to view a second channel (sometimes referred to as a PIP or “sub” channel) in a window 20 embedded in a display 30 of a first channel (sometimes referred to as a “main” channel) as shown in FIG. 5A. The television often includes controls for moving and re-sizing the window 20. With reference to FIG. 5B, POP refers to a feature in which the television screen is divided into two, generally equal-sized, main and sub windows 40 and 50, respectively, and main and sub channels are displayed in the windows. The PIP and POP features permit users to watch programming on two different channels at the same time and have proven to be popular with consumers. Generally speaking, these features are implemented by providing the television with two tuners, one of which is tuned to the main channel and the other of which is tuned to the sub-channel.
It is desirable to maintain a user's ability to utilize features such as PIP and POP even as new features and capabilities are added to televisions. For example, recording devices such as hard disk (HD) recorders, DVD recorders and HD/DVD recorders are becoming more popular. However, in many televisions, POP and PIP cannot be used while an external recording device is time-shifting or recording a program.
The system and method described herein permits time-shifting or recording for any tuner input, regardless of whether the tuner input is being used for POP (or PIP) or the main viewing window. This allows POP (or PIP) video modes and recording to an external recording device to be carried out simultaneously. In one example system and method, a switch is controlled in accordance with a control program of a television to dynamically select which inputs are routed to the main and sub viewing windows.
These and other features and advantages will be better and more completely understood by referring to the following detailed description of example embodiments in conjunction with the drawings.